Recently I’ve visited Kanonersky island. While it’s located close to the centre of St. Petersburg, it’s mostly industrial and a huge chunk of it is pretty much a wasteland with occasional garbage piles here and there.

Before Peter the Great decided to build a city here the Finns called it Kissasaari (“cats’ island”). Later it became Kanonersky island after the word “cannoneer”: there was gunpowder storage and training grounds there.